Later life is a different chapter, not an ending.

Carl Jung's idea of the unlived life is one of the most useful frames for the second half. What he meant by the shadow, what becomes hard to ignore at fifty, and what to do about the parts of yourself you set aside.

The loneliness that surfaced for me at fifty-two, in a hotel lounge in Nepal, was not new. It was older than my marriage, older than my divorce, older than I wanted to admit. A piece on the loneliness many of us carry into later life, and where it actually comes from.

I made a playlist of old songs to remind myself of who I once was or who I am. What followed changed everything I thought I knew about age, permission, and what it means to still be here.

For most of my life I believed religion was something other people needed. So how did I end up sitting in a vicar’s living room exploring faith and the question of evil?